Our Mission

#BeMoreLikeClaire strives to carry on Claire’s legacy​of love by providing funding and expertise to support initiatives that:

Increase access to food, housing and healthcare

Promote mentoring and leadership development

Work to end relationship violence

Help create a healthier environment

Our Story

Lt. Dr. Claire Elizabeth VanLandingham was a promising young Navy dentist when her life was tragically cut short. On January 3, 2018, she was murdered by an ex-boyfriend. She was a bright light and had big plans to make the world a more fair, compassionate, and loving place for all people. #BeMoreLikeClaire is a way for those of us who loved her - and those who never had the pleasure of meeting her - to pool our efforts to continue in some small way the work that she most certainly would have done.

To know Claire was to know love in action. Her compassion, her ability to see the needs of others, her bravery, her joy, and her goodness were the natural contours of her short but meaningful life.

#BeMoreLikeClaire provides funding and expertise to support work that makes the world a better place for all, including access to food, housing and health care; mentoring and leadership development; prevention of relationship violence; and creating a healthier environment. We hope to bring people together to fulfill our mission, knowing that we can do more together than we can do separately.​

​Thank you for joining us in honoring a life well lived. Her grandfather adapted the Robert Burns quote when he said, "If there is another world, she lives in bliss. If there is none, she made the best of this."

The hashtag story

The hashtag #BeMoreLikeClaire was started by her dental school friends. No one is exactly sure who the first one was to use it, but they all agree that "It doesn't matter. [We’re] just happy people are using it to make the world a better place." As they learned about her death, they commented over and over again about what a bright light she was; they described her as loving, selfless, kind, gentle, joyful, and fun, with a brilliant mind focused on creating good in the world. They were inspired to take up the torch to do the work that she would not be able to do. They started using the hashtag on Facebook in their tributes to her as they were saying goodbye. As soon as a close high school friend learned about the hashtag, he bought the web domain name bemorelikeclaire.orgfor us to one day create a website to honor her legacy (and we did!).​

Apply for a #BeMoreLikeClaire Grant

Do you have an idea for a grant that might align with our mission? We would love to hear about it! Contact us at contact@bemorelikeclaire.org​

Stay Informed

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